Cranial Guitar

By Bob Kaufman

Book Overview

Combining street wisdom with insights from art and history, blending high and popular culture, Kaufman's poetry reflects a singular wit and lyricism that has earned him the respect of poets and readers worldwide. Cranial Guitar, the only major collection available of the late Bob Kaufman's classic works, contains selections from The Ancient Rain, Solitudes Crowded with Loneliness, the entire text of the long-out-of-print Golden Sardine, as well as poems that have never appeared in book form including the last one Kaufman wrote before his death in 1986.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566890381
• ISBN13: 9781566890380
• Release Date: February 1995
• Publisher: Coffee House Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Poet's Poet

Whenever I start to believe, I am a poet, I read this to remind me I am not.

Great compilaton of Kaufman

This compilation contains some poems from his book, "Solitudes Crowded with Loneliness," which I also bought, but there are also enough other poems in here from his ouvre to please most of his fans. Kaufman is not as well-known a name as Kerouac or Ginsberg, but he should be....in part because he influenced them both, but mainly because he was a GREAT poet. Like, dig, man!!

Effortless Grace

Of all the Beat poets, Bob Kauffman was the most naturally gifted. One gets the feeling that Kauffman dashed most of these poems off by cafe or bar light, and that's a big part of their power and their charm. These poems are not "finished" in the same sense as the standard, tenured faculty M.F.A. drivel that's defined as POETRY these ticky-tacky days. Rather, they are invitations: doorways into another time, place, and state of mind, and they're as pumped full of virtu (effortless grace) as a bop solo on the far side of midnight.

The True Beatnik

jazz, surrealism, and absurdism, all clash together in this splendid volume of work. kaufman was a contemporary of jack kerouac,allen ginsberg, leroi jones, and other beat luminaries of the 50's and 60's. he is credited with coining the term, "beat" and was the unofficial poet laureate of san francisco's north beach area.reclusive and mysterious, he spent many of his readings, reciting his poems from memory; very few volumes of his poems were in print;there were only three known books of his work: " The Ancient Rain," " Solitudes Crowded with Loneliness" and " Golden Sardine." his poetic influences are many, such as rimbaud and hart crane, but jazz is always at the heart of his work...to capture the essence of this brilliant poet, check out such pieces as " would you wear my eyes?" " i, too, know what i am not," and " walking parker home"